Things weren't nearly as crazy as last year, when six teams all finished within a game of one another and the third through eighth seeds were basically not determined until the final date of the regular season.

But Saturday's end of regular-season Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball once again held plenty of intrigue and suspense as virtually ever team jockeyed for position in this week's OVC postseason tournament.

When the final horns had sounded, there was a two-way tie for first place and a three-way tie for third place, which caused various tie-breaking procedures to go into effect.

Murray State, by virtue of a 64-63 win over Tennessee Tech, gained a share of its 12th OVC regular-season title in the past 13 years.

Southeast Missouri State University, by beating Eastern Kentucky 65-48, gained a share of its first-ever OVC regular-season championship. The Indians and Racers both finished with 14-4 league records.

Murray State will carry the No. 1 seed into the eight-team OVC Tournament that begins Tuesday, with Southeast the No. 2 seed.

The Racers and Indians split their two regular-season meetings, which is the first tie-breaker criteria. The next criteria to break ties for seedings is how the teams fared against the next-highest finishing squads.

Murray State and Southeast both beat No. 3 Tennessee Tech and No. 4 Eastern Illinois twice, but the Indians split with No. 5 Austin Peay while the Racers swept the Governors. Hence, Murray State received the top seed.

Tennessee Tech, Eastern Illinois and Austin Peay all tied for third place at 11-7, but the Governors were relegated to the fifth seed, which is extremely important, because the top four seeds play first-round tournament games at home.

Middle Tennessee finished sixth with a 10-8 record, followed by 7-11 Tennessee-Martin in seventh and 6-12 Tennessee State in eighth.

Morehead State (4-14) and Eastern Kentucky (2-16) brought up the rear in the 10-team OVC and did not qualify for the postseason tourney.

Tuesday night's first-round pairings pit Tennessee State at Murray State, Tennessee-Martin at Southeast Missouri, Middle Tennessee at Tennessee Tech and Austin Peay at Eastern Illinois.

The opening-round winners advance to Nashville, Tenn., for Saturday's semifinals, with the championship game set for Sunday on ESPN. The OVC tourney winner earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

"It should really be a great tournament," said Southeast coach Gary Garner, whose squad has the best overall record in the league at 21-6 while Murray State is 21-8. "I think as many as six teams really have a legitimate chance of winning the championship, and even Tennessee-Martin and Tennessee State are very capable of pulling off upsets."

Southeast didn't have very long to celebrate its first-ever OVC regular-season title because the Indians have to quickly prepare for a Tennessee-Martin squad that handed them one of their four conference losses this season.

"We know how capable Tennessee-Martin is because they've already beaten us once," Garner said. "It's going to be an exciting week, because every team plays to get into the NCAA playoffs and Tuesday's games are the start of getting there."

In addition to Southeast and Murray State, four other squads have winning overall records. Conversely, last season, only the Indians and Racers entered the OVC Tournament with marks of .500 or better.

"It just shows you how much stronger our league was this year," said Garner. "It's really improved overall from last year. That's why the tournament should really be exciting."

Austin Peay is 18-9, Tennessee Tech and Eastern Illinois are both 16-11 and Middle Tennessee is 14-12. The other two tourney qualifiers have losing records, Tennessee-Martin 10-18 and Tennessee State 7-21.

* On the women's side, Tennessee Tech romped to the regular-season title at 16-2, with Middle Tennessee a solid second at 13-5.

Tennessee-Martin and Murray State tied for third at 11-7, with Tennessee-Martin gaining the No. 3 seed. The teams split the two regular-season meetings, but the Skyhawks won the tie-breaker because of a victory over Tennessee Tech.

Eastern Kentucky was fifth at 10-8, Austin Peay finished sixth at 9-9 and Southeast placed seventh at 7-11. Eastern Illinois and Tennessee State tied for eighth at 6-12, but Eastern Illinois won both regular-season meetings to gain the final tournament berth.

Tuesday's first-round games feature Eastern Illinois at Tennessee Tech, Southeast at Middle Tennessee, Austin Peay at Tenn.-Martin and Eastern Kentucky at Murray State.

Only two OVC women's teams have winning overall records, Tennessee Tech 21-8 and Middle Tennessee 17-10.

OVC Tournament

MEN

Today's Games

(Seeds in parentheses)

(8) Tenn. St. at (1) Murray St., 7:30 p.m.

(7) Tenn.-Martin at (2) SE MISSOURI, 7 p.m.

(6) Middle Tenn. at (3) Tenn. Tech, 8 p.m.

(5) Austin Peay at (4) Eastern Ill., 7 p.m.

Saturday's Games

(In Nashville, Tenn.)

Semifinals, 5 p.m., 7 p.m.

Sunday's Game

(In Nashville, Tenn.)

Championship, 1:30 p.m. (ESPN)

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WOMEN

Today's Games

(Seeds in parentheses)

(8) Eastern Ill. at (1) Tenn. Tech, 5:45 p.m.

(7) SE MISSOURI at (2) Middle Tenn., 7 p.m.

(6) Austin Peay at (3) Tenn.-Martin, 7 p.m.

(5) Eastern Kentucky at (4) Murray St., 5:30 p.m.

Saturday's Games

(In Nashville, Tenn.)

Semifinals, 11 a.m., 1 p.m.

Sunday's Game

(In Nashville, Tenn.)

Championship, 5 p.m. (Fox Sports South)